![\"\"](\"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Condliffe-1-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe problem
<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
The issue comes down to patriarchal society, Condliffe says. \u201cMen have more power than women, and exploit that power,\u201d she says. Thus, most investors and influential board members are males. And then there is the bias problem. \u201cPeople tend to invest in people similar to themselves,\u201d she says. A white man tends to invest in other white men, rather than women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution
<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Condliffe argues it is really important that we have more women investors and more women in leadership supporting other women. \u201cBut I also think because it is really a struggle for women to get to the top, once they get there they are less likely to take risks such as advocate for more women in higher positions,\u201d she says. Women are still facing a lot of barriers in business which need to be removed. Condliffe says quotas could be a good approach to close the gender gap. And not just a tentative 10% requirement, but a 50\/50 quota representing the share of the world population. Says Condliffe: \u201cWe need to see ourselves represented in companies and also at conferences like the St. Gallen Symposium.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florian Schweitzer
Partner and CEO of btov Partners AG<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
btov Partners AG is a European venture capital firm with offices in St. Gallen, Berlin, Munich and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an investor, Schweitzer argues that he has a positive bias towards female entrepreneurs. \u201cWomen think about something longer than men, and they tend to only start if they are really sure they will succeed,\u201d he argues. According to him, that is why it is better to invest in women. \u201cIf I have two teams of entrepreneurs, doing exactly the same thing,\u201d he says, \u201cI very likely would take the female team.\u201d The work, he argues, has to start at home or at school. \u201cSociety seems to move both genders in different directions,\u201d Schweitzer says. Stereotypes are already at play at a very young age. \u201cWhen it comes to being an entrepreneur, this is really bad,\u201d he says. \u201cGirls need to be empowered to go on entrepreneur journeys.\u201d Female Founders serves as an ecosystem for female entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fassl says telling other people about how amazing they are and how amazing their company is, which is what most start-up pitches boil down to, is something women have trouble with. \u201cThat is because women are super realistic,\u201d Fassl says. This is, in terms of sales pitches, not always a winning formula. Like Condliffe, Fassl says women-owned companies get less funding than businesses founded by men due to a certain selection bias. Because venture capital firms all over the world are mostly led by men, Fassl says, \u201cit is not surprising that those male investors prefer to invest in people that they can somehow relate to. And in most cases those are men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRole models are super important,\u201d says Fassl. \u201cThere are some female entrepreneurs out there, there are women CEOs out there, and we need to see them.\u201d There is also an economic reason to bring more female entrepreneurs and investors on board. \u201cThey bring this female perspective, which is the perspective of 50% of our population, to the table,\u201d Fassl says. At the end of the day, it is all about diversity. \u201cIt\u2019s about having men and women equally represented. Diversity and equality are really important for our society \u2013 and economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to close the gender funding gap, women should raise their voices and be more assertive. Role models and female investors are of utmost importance in making this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zo\u00eb CondliffeCEO of She\u2019s A Crowd She\u2019s A Crowd is a platform where women can report gender-based violence, like sexual assault, anonymously. The problem The issue comes down to patriarchal society, Condliffe says. \u201cMen have more power than women, and exploit that power,\u201d she says. Thus, most investors and influential board members are males. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[68],"class_list":["post-1929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2-234x300.jpg",234,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2-768x985.jpg",768,985,true],"large":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2-798x1024.jpg",798,1024,true],"xl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"xxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"xxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"xxxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"xxxxxl":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2-1198x1536.jpg",1198,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/SYMP-49-Magazine-Web-Article-L-Funding-Gap_0_skaliert2.jpg",1123,1440,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":" Zo\u00eb CondliffeCEO of She\u2019s A Crowd She\u2019s A Crowd is a platform where women can report gender-based violence, like sexual assault, anonymously. The problem The issue comes down to patriarchal society, Condliffe says. \u201cMen have more power than women, and exploit that power,\u201d she says. Thus, most investors and influential board members are males. And then there is the bias problem. \u201cPeople tend to invest in people similar to themselves,\u201d she says. A white man tends to invest in other white men, rather than women. The solution Condliffe argues it is really important that we have more women investors and…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"INSIGHTS<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"wordpress@weitblick-online.ch","url":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/author\/wordpressweitblick-online-ch\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","authors":[{"term_id":68,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"franziska-andre-julia-koster","display_name":"Franziska Andre, Julia Koster","avatar_url":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/gravatars\/762b22de4bf1bf3924204e9b02554eaa","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3072,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions\/3072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Schweitzer-1-less-headspace.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe problem
<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
However, he argues, there are still too few women starting businesses. \u201cThis comes back to the fact that many fewer women want to create something new,\u201d he says. Within the start-up scene in Berlin, which is the tech entrepreneurship hub for German-speaking Europe, there are about 40 women meeting regularly at networking dinners. Those initiatives are important and growing. \u201cThat is great, but there is much more potential,\u201d Schweitzer says. \u201cThere is a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe solution
<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
However, Schweitzer argues that the gender funding gap is not only the problem of the venture capital industry. \u201cThis is also an issue for women themselves. They only ask for funding if they are sure to make it happen,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have to be a little bit more bold and sell some more uncertain things \u2013 but do not overstretch it and follow the very bad example of Elizabeth Holmes, CEO and founder of Theranos, who confused hope with truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nLisa-Marie Fassl
Co-founder of Female Founders<\/h5>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/symposium.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Fassl-1-cropped_0.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe problem
<\/h5>\n\n\n\nThe solution
<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n